Reviews

The Antipodes by Annie Baker

Only show reviews with written explanations

not_mike's review

5.0

Play.

Why do we bother telling stories in the middle of a chaotic timeline?
How many stories are there?
What the F-- is the point of storytelling?

Read this play.

caralikesbooks's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

4.75

alccx__'s review

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

kcnoun's review

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5.0

“we all pretend there’s something magic about it but actually it’s just algorithms.”

stories within stories within stories and all of them are about you. the end.

jam_sandwich's review

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dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I was feeling anxious last night and couldn't sleep, so I picked up this copy of The Antipodes that I checked out from the library back in March after reading Annie Baker's The Vermont Plays for a book club. It was fitting. I was feeling claustrophobic and frustrated, and so are these characters. True, it's a play where nothing happens -- even less than the nothing that happens in Circle Mirror Transformation, (my favorite of the The Vermont Plays) and The Aliens -- but Baker is a master of saying something BETWEEN everything the actors actually say. The silences, the interruptions, the rambling monologues that don't really go anywhere -- there's humanity in all of that. The lack of a story is the story here (in more ways than one).

What I'm trying to say is that one of my new life goals is to see an Annie Baker play performed in person.

And, uh, what's up with Brian?

rebadee's review

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4.0

The Antipodes is a shift from Annie Baker's recent works in that it has a multitude of voices competing in nearly every scene. This makes sense as its set in a writers' room where the characters are conceptualizing a new story project. It was similar to Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves' with multiple conversations taking place. Reading these sections is disorienting, but live it may feel more natural to follow these concurrent threads. The Antipodes combines the mundanity of staff meetings with otherworldly events occurring in the stories shared by staff members. The strangeness was reminiscent of the stories told by the innkeeper in Baker's earlier work John. Baker's focus here is on story and how one comes to be created, whose stories are considered of value, and the impacts of stories on the people who construct and tell them.